SLAMDANCE 2021 Premiere – The timing of this documentary’s release is perfect–hot off the heels of the Sundance Film Festival premiere of Judas and the Black Messiah (2021), which recounts the final chapters in the life of Chicago-based community activist and Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton, A Tiny Ripple of Hope (2021) is premiering at the 2021 Slamdance Film Festival and highlights present-day community activist Jahmal Cole, founder of “My Block, My Hood, My City,” a Chicago-based after-school program.

Following the life of Jahmal Cole over the course of a year, director Jason Polevoi captures intimate moments in the daily events of a compassionate and dedicated leader, showing how his grassroots efforts affect change in his community. In one of America’s most notoriously disenfranchised cities, Chicago, IL, the impact of segregation is still felt to this day, inspiring Cole to combat this issue by organizing field trips for Chiacgo’s southside and west-side youth to venture away from their block in order to experience the bigger landscape and opportunities of their city.

Something like a real-world example of coming out into the light for the first time like in Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave,” Cole stresses the importance of seeing beyond the confines of the inner-city setting. Despite not being able to go to China he can take them to Chinatown, despite not being able to go to Greece they can go to Greek town. “Exposure is key to preventing violence in Chicago” Jahmal argues, a statement which seems to be the driving force behind his field trip methodology. With the idea of creating a ripple effect of change by mentoring from a young age, Cole encourages participants to overcome challenges and celebrate small victories on the path to self-actualization in the face of adversity.

Referring to participants as “student explorers” Cole mentors and guides young minds through practical experiences that broaden their understanding of the world and how they can both be a productive part of and also direct change within that world. The background and motivation of Jahmal Cole are explained through interviews with his mother, wife, students, and fellow Chicago social workers, and it is all beautifully intermixed with commentary and poetry from this leader and orator.

A Tiny Ripple of Hope shows the power of presence, both in how Jahmal being present in the lives of his student explorers with support in every aspect and how the student explorers’ presence in new places gives a sense of hope and direction to the lives of youth who may have otherwise been swept into the school to prison pipeline. This documentary brings attention to the extreme economic and racial inequality that breeds a cycle of poverty due to lack of access, and how in the absence of government intervention people like Jahmal Cole have stepped in to fill that void.

A Tiny Ripple of Hope is currently playing at Slamdance 2021.

7 out of 10